mr. speaker , i thank the distinguished gentleman from new york , our ranking member on the ways and means committee , for yielding me the time .  i thank you and our colleagues on the committee on the democratic side for the excellent work you did in putting forth the democratic alternative today .  you have made an excellent case for your substitute and indictment against what the republicans are doing .  let us talk about what is happening here today .  a few weeks ago , right before thanksgiving , there was a bill on the floor which was the republican budget bill .  so bad was this bill in terms of it not representing the values of our country that the religious community gathered in the rotunda of the capitol of the united states , and they prayed that this congress would make the right decisions and reject the republican budget proposal .  they asked some questions about why we would be giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country while taking food out of the mouths of america 's children .  they said they were going to draw a moral line in the sand because a budget should be a statement of our national values , and what we care about in our country should be reflected in that budget .  today , we are talking about a tax bill which is hand-in-glove part of the reconciliation that the republicans are putting forth .  so embarrassed were they by their own budget and so embarrassed were they by this tax bill that they had to have 3 weeks come between the two of them so that the american people would separate the cause and effect of what they were doing with their budget bill that was poor in its values , poor in its priorities and increasing our deficit because of this tax bill today .  yesterday , they engaged in another sham , which was to pretend that they were giving alternative minimum tax relief for middle-class families in america .  if they cared about middle-class families in america , they would have put that in this bill today which has the full protection as it goes over to the senate .  they know that that bill they passed yesterday has no weight in the senate .  it does not have the protection of the parliamentary process on the senate side , and the same applies to what they did to try to give the illusion that they were helping our men and women in combat so that they would qualify for the low-income tax credit .  if they cared about them , they would have them in the bill today .  this budget , as i said , should be a statement of our national values ; and while we talk about that , let us talk about what those values are .  america has always cherished the value of opportunity , and one place where that is possible for more americans is in the issue of education .  taking these two bills together , we are giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people in america while we are putting a burden on our young people by saying that they will pay $ 5 , 800 more in their student loans so that we can give tax cuts to people making over $ 1 million a year .  that is not a statement of our national values .  that takes from our children their opportunity when we should be expanding it .  fairness .  fairness has always been a cherished american value .  fairness .  we see that during the last 5 years , these 5 years of the bush administration , 7 million more people in our country go to sleep hungry , without adequate food , because they can not afford to buy food .  seven million more people , an increase of 12 percent , and what does this combination of reconciliation in order to give tax cuts to people making over $ 1 million a year , that cuts food stamps and takes many tens of thousand of children off the school lunch program do ?  as the religious community said , how can we as a country give tax cuts to the wealthiest and take food out of the mouths of our children ?  that is not about fairness .  fairness is an american value .  community .  america has always been about community .  alexis de tocqueville said it about the origins of our country , and community means safe neighborhoods , the safety of our people , homeland security and the rest .  we are not putting adequate resources to cops on the beat or anything else in order for us to give these tax cuts at the high end .  that is not about community .  that is totally unfair , and it is diminishing opportunity .  let us take the value of responsibility , personal responsibility , fiscal responsibility , which should be the order of the day in this conversation here .  the combination of their tax bill and their budget bill in reconciliation , which i do not blame them for separating by 3 weeks because it is a total embarrassment with that , they are increasing the deficit .  they are increasing the deficit by $ 20 billion in order to give tax cuts to the wealthiest americans .  they are putting the burden of debt on america 's children , individual debt with their student loans and fiscal debt in terms of our national debt and what our kids will be burdened with .  it is just totally irresponsible and at the same time increases the deficit .  democrats support pay-as-you-go .  no deficit spending .  if something is important to you , figure out how to pay for it , but do not make my children and grandchildren have to pay for it or anybody 's children and grandchildren have to pay for it .  every opportunity i get i want to sing the praises of the clinton administration .  coming out of that administration we were on a trajectory of 5.6 trillion with a tr , dollars in surplus .  in the years of the bush administration , that has been almost fully reversed , over $ 4 trillion in deficit , a swing of around $ 10 trillion , an incredible burden on the future , a tax on our children 's future .  and this is the party of fiscal responsibility ?  republicans have completely abdicated that .  the democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility .  we showed we can do it then .  we can do it again .  we should not today be catering to this appetite for deficits that the republicans can not seem to get over .  it is just absolutely immoral , immoral for us to heap those deficits on our children .  i want to commend my colleagues on the democratic side for what they have done and put into their proposal .  the house democrats are committed to an america that works for everyone , not just the privileged few .  our democratic substitute reflects the values of community by shielding the middle-class americans from the alternative minimum tax in a bill that really counts , not in some suspension of yesterday that has no weight in the conference with the senate ; and it provides tax relief , the democratic alternative does , for our soldiers in combat in the bill .  that really matters as well .  the democratic substitute demonstrates fairness by not adding to the deficit ; and it creates opportunities , spurring economic growth , generating jobs and supporting our small businesses .  our democratic members on the committee have eloquently made an indictment against this budget which is immoral because of the $ 70 billion in tax cuts , mostly for america 's wealthiest .  the republican budget decimates the very initiatives that middle-class americans rely upon to get ahead .  the poor suffer , the rich benefit , the middle class is paying the bill .  the number of people without health insurance has increased 4 years in a row .  people are hungry , a 12 percent increase .  the number of people who do not have health insurance has grown .  they are cutting $ 45 billion in medicaid , a health insurance program that is mostly for america 's poor children , many of them katrina survivors .  alexis de tocqueville talked about community in america .  he wrote back to the french : `` america is great because america is good .  if america ever ceases to be good , '' he concluded , `` america will cease to be great. '' this is a moment that no one in this body wants to hasten .  we all want america to be great and america to be good .  together , we can do better by returning to our fundamental values to maintain america 's goodness by rejecting this immoral tax bill .  